The Henley Passport Index is an annual global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom allowed by those countries’ ordinary passports for their citizens. The index was created by Christian Kälin and launched in 2005 as Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index. Its name was changed to Henley Passport Index in January 2018. The index is updated on a quarterly basis to reflect changes in global visa policies.
The index annually ranks 199 passports of the world by the number of countries that their holders can travel to without requiring a visa. The number of countries that a specific passport can access becomes its visa-free “score”. The data is obtained from the International Air Transport Association (IATA)’s Timatic documentation requirements database.
At Suvarnabhumi Airport the immigration authorities will expand the Auto Gates for 31 more countries which should minimize the passport queues for entering Thailand. The expansion is expected to attract about 6.5 million visitors, as potential Auto Gate users, in addition to 900,000 long-term visa holders. Once fully operational, officials expect the gates to process 53% of arriving passengers, with the remaining 47% using staffed immigration counters.
Who can use the Auto Gates?
Authorities selected the additional nationalities using entry-refusal data, countries’ positions in the Henley Passport Index and security assessments. Denmark currently ranks as number 4 passport together with countries such as Luxembourg, Sweden, Switzerland out of 199 countries with visa-free access to 186 countries.